In a career known for Going Big, Stephen King’s Dark Tower series still stands apart. Beginning as an enigmatic, college-written mashup between Sergio Leone and Tolkien, it developed over the decades into a gloriously overstuffed, wildly imaginative mix of authorial insertions, ties to King’s other works, and metaphysical hooey. Even when it seems to occasionally forget the main plot (hello, book six), King never stops swinging for the fences. Unfortunately, what’s ended up on screen is thoroughly mediocre. by Andrew Wright